Tiny SoHo retail space sells for record price

Imperium Capital, a four-year-old real estate investment firm, buys its third property on Prince Street, paying $8 million for a 650-square-foot retail space. The sale price is a per-square-foot record for the area.

Imperium Capital has purchased a 650-square-foot retail space at 123 Prince St.

A pair of young investors who have been busy acquirers of SoHo real estate have struck again.

Daniel Glaser, 30, and Sam Schneider, 36, two former investment sales brokers who started their own real estate investment firm called Imperium Capital have bought a small slice of what is considered one of the SoHo area's premiere shopping corridors.

Imperium purchased the ground floor retail space at 123 Prince St., on the corner of Wooster Street, for $8 million. Though that doesn't sound like much in an area where retail condos can fetch at least tens of millions of dollars, the space is a mere 650 square feet, which means the sale translates into a stratospheric $12,300 per square foot—a sale price in the area based on per square foot. Real estate investment firm Centurion Realty partnered with Imperium on the purchase.

article continues below advertisement

Messrs. Glaser and Schneider were brokers at Eastern Consolidated before they struck off on their own in 2010 to buy properties. The duo were a part of investment groups that purchased other properties on Prince Street, including 103 Prince St., which houses an Apple store, and 120 Prince St. They bought those properties for more than $70 million in 2011 and a reported $20 million in 2012, respectively. The two have also been actively buying retail space in Williamsburg.

SoHo has blossomed into a retail powerhouse with rents for prime retail spaces cracking $1,000 per square foot, record square-foot rates for the area.